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Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language

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Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language (1882)
by Ignácz Singer

Part of the series "Trübner's Collection of Simplified Grammars". See the Advertisements for a list of other titles in the series.

1736296Simplified Grammar of the Hungarian Language1882Ignácz Singer

SIMPLIFIED GRAMMAR

OF THE

HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE.

BY

IGNATIUS SINGER.

LONDON:
TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59, LUDGATE HILL.


1882.

[All rights reserved.]

PREFACE.

The intention of the Author in the following pages is to supply the student of Hungarian with a handbook that will enable him to overcome the initial difficulties which have hitherto attended the study of this language.

To the English student Hungarian is accessible only through the medium of German; but the chief difficulty which the student has to contend with lies in the peculiarities of the language itself. With the exception of a few words borrowed from the German or Slav languages, Hungarian is so different in its structure from the other European languages (excepting Finnish and Turkish) that a new grammatical system, as well as a new vocabulary, has to be learnt. It is therefore obvious that Hungarian cannot be treated according to the rules usually adopted, and yet in most Hungarian Grammars the language is forced to accommodate itself to this framework of the Latin system; where this has been found impossible, as is generally the case, the student was left to shift for himself.

Owing to this imperfect method, a language so expressive and so simple in its grammatical construction as Hungarian has been decried as "extremely difficult," "barbarous," and the like.

The language is here treated from a different standpoint. Instead of attempting to accommodate the language to a system altogether foreign to its spirit, the Author has analysed the language itself, and given the results of his analysis in a series of rules. For this reason the terminology usually adopted has been abandoned and replaced by more appropriate expressions, which in most cases have been obtained by translating directly from Hungarian the corresponding grammatical terms.

Ignatius Singer.

London, June, 1882.

A HUNGARIAN GRAMMAR.

CONTENTS

THE ALPHABET 1
Letters, Pronunciation, Vowel Harmony, Stress
ACCIDENCE 5
NOUNS SUBSTANTIVE 6
General; Articles; Of Suffixes; The Number of Nouns;
Cases of the Noun; Declension of the Substantive;
Personal Suffixes; Suffixes for Place and Direction;
Postpositions
THE ADJECTIVE 26
General; Comparison of Adjectives; Numerals
THE PRONOUN 32
General; Personal Pronouns; Reflexive Pronouns;
Demonstrative Pronouns; Relative Pronouns;
Interrogative Pronouns
THE VERB 45
General; Of Moods; Of the Tenses of the Verb;
Of Numbers, Person, and Form; I. Active Verbs;
Participles; Conjugation of the Transitive Verbs;
II. Medial Verbs; Examples of Conjugation;
Compound Verbs; Irregular Verbs; Impersonal Verbs;
Defective Verbs
ADVERBS 77
General; Comparison of Adverbs
CONJUNCTIONS 81
INTERJECTIONS 82
GENDER 82
ETYMOLOGY 82
SYNTAX 87


TRÜBNER'S COLLECTION

OF

SIMPLIFIED GRAMMARS

OF THE PRINCIPAL

ASIATIC AND EUROPEAN LANGUAGES

EDITED BY E. H. PALMER, M.A.




II.

THE HUNGARIAN LANGUAGE,

BY IGNATIUS SINGER

Ballantyne Press
BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO., EDINBUGH
CHANDOS STREET, LONDON

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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